Battle Of The Bands
by BRMCluv
Summary: AU. Richard, Kahlan, Rahl, and Cara are navigating the cutthroat world of the music industry as contenders in the biggest musical competition the world has ever known. Zedd is the guiding hand of an experienced rock star passing the torch. Cara will rap, Richard will play guitar, and Rahl will, well, scream. Grab a seat and get ready to rock!
1. The Title of F-ing Awesome

"We're finally here, folks! One month into the competition, the ten best bands from around the world have beat out hundreds of other contenders and made it to _the final rounds!_" The announcer stood in front of many cameras, recording the words that would broadcast to millions of viewers that night.

Richard couldn't help feeling a swell of pride hearing the words booming over the microphone on the giant stage in front of him. He didn't often allow himself to feel prideful, but to be included under that coveted label of "the ten best bands from around the world" really gave him a thrill. Looking at the woman at his side, he could tell by her faint blush and small smile she was feeling the same delicious way.

"Is this really happening?" Kahlan asked, slippin an arm around his waist. Richard wrapped her in a tender embrace and kissed the top of her head.

"Alright, alright, we still have a ways to go." A muscle-bound man set one of the two heavy bags of equipment he was carrying and held the other out towards Richard.

"Can you believe we made it this far, Chase?" Richard, vocalist and guitarist, asked his drummer. Chase grinned and shouldered his bag. "Of course."

The members o the acoustic band Seekers of Truth made their way toward the spot on the map indicating their trailers.

"The ten bands will be pitted against eachoter over the course of this week. Each night the viewers who tune in will get to vote online and over the phone for their favorite bands."

Every eye within range was on a group of leggy, scowling women carrying equipment easily with even stride. They each wore brown leather pants and tight, red leather tube tops. Their hair hung down their backs in a single braid. At the head of the group, electric guitar strapped to his back and a finger stroking his bottom lip, was a man named Darken Rahl. He was the lead guitarist and throat vocalist for the heavy metal band Skies Darken. A theatrical cloak hung down his back, and black lined his already dark eyes. Directly behind him and before the group of leather-clad women walked a beautiful women with shiny, straight blond hair and china-doll skin. She wore a simple black dress and chunky black boots. She was the singer for the band, named Nicci. Skies Darken had easily dominated the rest of the bands in their genre, and were metal fan favorites.

"We have several different genres represented here this week, but as yoiu know, only one band can win! The prizes include a record deal and a whopping $250,000! It's been a long road of top-grade performances and cutthroat competition for these ten lucky musical groups! And let's not forget our solo acts either, folks!"

Cara turned her back to the woman speaking in exclamation points and scanned the crowd. She was hyper-alert and focused as usual. She had breezed through the competition with her lyrical genius, bringing the man's game of hip-hop right into her capable hands. Her tongue was sharp, her mind quick, and her fingers always itching to write new rhymes. Few knew her as Cara Mason, however. Her stage name was Morbid Sis, denoting her sometimes dark and always fierce lyrics.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only female rapper to make the top ten. The fans went wild for the rivalry between Morbid Sis and The Mistress, another blond rapper named Denna. The Mistress didn't write her own songs, and always seemed to rap about her looks. Morbid Sis knew she was the better rapper, and was going to make sure the world knew it too.

"And now folks, allow me to introduce one of the judges who sent these bands to the top. He will be mentoring each one this week, and giving you voters his two cents on who should win. You know him as the frontman for Wizards Rule, you've loved him for decades, hailed his music as as classic as classic rock gets, now please give it up for a true legend: Zeddicus Zorander!"

Everyone milling about, the television crews and bands just arriving, stopped to cheer as the man with the outrageous outit and long, disheveled gray hair strode onto the stage. Zedd was truly an icon, making a long career out of playing both genius rock and rll music and living an edgy and amusing personal life. He has many names, but The Wizard suits him best, as his touch seems to be magic in the studio and at his crazy live shows. In his heyday he fronted a band called Wizards Rule, now a household name. In middle-age he went solo, and now that he was decidedly "old" (but still young in spirit and full to the brim with energy) he's been involved with many projects like this one.

"How we doin' tonight, sycophants?" Zedd began. "Youth stands here with their slumped posture at the dawn of history being made. Never before have musicians this talented gathered together aiming for eachother's jugulars in such a way as this. Since Wizards Rule isn't together anymore, the time has come for a new band to bear the title of F***ing Awesome!"

The producers glared at the stage, feeling lucky the show wouldn't be going on lie until tomorrow.

"So, big bad world, I invite you to join me, The Wizard, in welcoming these ten bands to the almighty, glorious, bloody Battle!" He held up a closed fist high, as everyone involved in the competition clapped and cheered.

Richard felt the excitement of the moment wash over him. Zedd was one of his celebrity idols. At this point, he didn't een feel that driving, pressing need to win. Just to have made it this far made his beloved ban d and beautiful girlfriend champions in his eyes.

Darken Rahl folded his arms as he stared thoughtfully up at Zedd. His band's stony countenances remained frozen as the rest of the people cheered. Darken envied Zedd's power as a man who made music history and was therefore immortalized. He intended to usurp the Wizard's status as rock legend and steal the adoration of his fans.

Cara finally spotted the face she'd been searching for. She fixed a cold glare able to freeze magma on Denna, who clapped and smiled at Zedd unaware. Words danced in Cara's head, rhyming adjectives and disarming verbs finding eachother as if magnetized. She let her fair-haired competition inspire her, ready to bring her original brand of lyrical storm to rain on The Mistress and her fans.

Tomorrow would be the first day of the most important week of these ten band's lives. They would each bring different styles and talents to the table, but only one could claw its way to the top.


	2. My Spirit is a Vulture

Fade in from black. Shot: a blurry face, quickly coming in to focus while zooming in. A man's charming smile, instantly arresting the audience's attention.

"What is your name?" comes a voice from behind the camera.

"Richard."

The shot jumps to the man sitting on a couch, with an out-of-focus blur of people milling around behind him. There is a beautiful woman sitting next to him, holding an air of confidence about her and wearing a small smile. The man speaks.

"It was quite a coincidence actually. All three of us were performing at an open mic night in West Hartland. I saw Kahlan," he looks over at the woman next to him, and a private look in the room full of people and cameras passes between them. "...singing, and Chase playing the drums in a band, and I thought, that is rare talent, about both of them. There was a contest at the end, and Kahlan won second place, and Chase's band won third. Even though I didn't even place, I thought, even though we don't know each other, we could have won if we were playing together. It was just a feeling I had, which enabled me to talk to them after the performances at the risk of coming on too strong. But all of our personalities really seemed to mesh from the start, and our dreams sort of…aligned. We started working hard towards this week ever since."

A clip of the band playing in one of the qualifying rounds begins, with Richard's voice overlaying. "We choses the name Seekers of Truth because it seemed to match our principles and what we wanted to convey with our songs. Truth is the highest calling, because it seems in our world today deception is one of the main vehicles for action by people we'll never meet but have control over many aspects of our lives. And many of the people we meet throughout our lives will try to decieve us, sometimes just because they themselves are being decieved but do not percieve the lie. I believe I have dedicated a big part of my life to both pursuing the truth and showing how important that pursuit is."

The shot jumps to Kahlan, zoomed in past Richard. She is strikingly beautiful, and articulates intelligently, and like Richard, without _um_'s or _like_'s marring her sentences. "We write the songs together. I also believe wholeheartedly in the importance of truth, as well as duty and responsibility. But my lyrics are also about love. Love is very important to me. I've seen in this world how often it is both given and denied, used as both a balm and as an abusive power. I find my inspiration from love, because I try to do all things with it."

A clip of the band playing begins.

_I saw between us something growing  
Stronger than Naomi and Ruth_

_Felt like Elijah rising, glowing  
To above Jerusalem's roofs_

_More than seven days of creation  
Went into this glowing girl  
She parts the sea without hesitation  
Just one look and the waves unfurl_

Kahlan's tantalizing voice told the love story in a hauntingly beautiful way, but it was Richard's words she sang, words he wrote shortly after meeting her. The guitar is played deftly and with such soul and artistic touch that it sounds like no ordinary acoustics under Richard's fingers. Chase looks at home behind the drum set, although this song does not show off the extent of his ability.

Fade to black.

Fade in from black on a shot of a handsome man's face, dressed in all black under a draping maroon cloak. There is a pendant hanging from his neck with the letter R strung on the silver chain.

"My father was a musician, and his father before him, and his grandfather as well. There has been a musician on every branch of my family tree as far back as I can trace it. I believe the power behind my songs comes from my blood."

Cut to a shot of a beautiful blond woman, wearing a long black dress with a neckline all the way up to her throat. She wears a ruby red choker.

"Darken treats his songs like spells of black magic. He ritualistically writes them in a dark studio he keeps candle-lit with a feather pen, decorations of skulls all around. He says it gives him the inspiration he needs to come up with such dark and powerful songs. I am honored to sing for him." A voice behind the camera asks for her name. "Nicci." She replies.

Cut to a clip of the band playing, with Rahl's voice overlaying.

"I was blessed with the name Rahl. Rahls are known where I am from for their success in performance and creativity. I was also blessed with the name Darken. It suits my rather…theatrical nature. It is a striking name, and it makes the impression I also wish to make with my music: darkness is a basic element of life, but if it is harnessed, it is controlled. I harness it with my music to provide an outlet to others for their own private darkness."

The sound of Skies Darken's music begins. The first four words are screamed by Darken, and the rest is sung in Nicci's impeccable alto voice.

_Retching  
Purging  
Heaving  
Spewing_

_Am I new now?  
Or the same, just empty?  
What goes down sweet comes up bitter  
What's swallowed easily claws its way out_

Fade to black.

Fade in from black. A lovely blond woman stares the camera down fearlessly, her gaze seeming to reach beyond the fourth wall and confronting the viewers themselves.

"My name is Cara. I got into the rap game because I had a lot to say about things I've seen, I've learned, and I've had happen to me." A voice behind the camera asks, "like what?"

Cara's mouth twists in a cynical smile, and her green eyes come to life. "You sure you want to hear it?" She pauses, then begins.

"I was a witness to a horrific crime when I was twelve years old. Not only did I see a man murdered in a brutal fashion, but that man was my father. I was to be killed because of what I saw, but instead, because of how skilled and valiantly I fought his attackers, I was indoctrinated into the group of men and women who committed the crime. I was given no choice. I didn't know how to fight when I fought to save my father, I think the power behind my blows and dodges came from a power I was maybe even born with, that it took a near-death experience to activate. A power driven by the simple will to live.

The gang I was brought up in broke me. First they broke my body through torture. Then they broke my mind through forcing me to torture others. I became a different person, a brutal person. I discovered I was _good_ at what I did. I was used to gather information and carry out hits. This gang who had killed my father, then killed the child that I was, became my family. I was lost to this underworld of violence and crime. It was the only life I knew."

Cut to a clip of Cara rapping onstage, with her narration overlayed.

I started to write down how I felt about all the violence, and about my skill at performing it. I felt like I had to get out the spirit of the things I was experiencing, like it was forcing itself out of me like bile. I discovered what I wrote down sounded good when read aloud, so I started sneaking away from my gang duties to rap battles. I won many. One night a man approached me and told me he wanted to take me to perform for his boss at the hip-hop label he worked at. He said he had travelled from far away going to rap battles in poor cities like mine, looking for someone to spirit away and make into a star. I saw my opportunity to escape the gang. I went with him, and my career began."

Cut to a clip of Cara performing in the finals.

_The sun rises in the desert and bathes the sand red/Nothing providing shelter, you're gonna wind up dead/A sound comes out the distance, attention its insistence/Rise from your knees, meet your demise if you please_

_Don't believe in omens/Don't believe in curses/Won't fall like the Romans/With the genius of my verses/Nature vs. nurture/My spirit is a vulture/My skills are in torture/Violence is my culture/Creation, sensation, elation, confrontation/when I tie you down and slice you up, my power is your final realization._

Fade out to black.

* * *

Yes, I wrote the songs in this chapter. Please don't steal them!


End file.
